residences

The Matzen residence at 320 West Kinnear Place was constructed in 1910 – 1911. George Matzen was the owner and president of Matzen Manufacturing Company, a clothing manufacturer in Pioneer Square. He and his wife Irene occupied the house on the south slope of Queen Anne from 1910 until sometime in the 1930s. …Continue reading “320 West Kinnear Place: Matzen Residence”→

“At First Avenue West and West Garfield Street, these Craftsman bungalows are of minor significance individually. As a group, they provide a rhythm and consistency of scale.” Steinbrueck and Nyberg

No one understood better than Victor Steinbrueck and his colleague Folke Nyberg how much Seattle or Queen Anne’s historic working-class housing defined the city. The six identical working-class Craftsman bungalows they referred to in their 1975 poster still stand on West Garfield Street between the alley and First Ave. W. Four of them face north on Garfield; one sits on First Avenue W. while the sixth one backs up to it from the alley. As Steinbrueck and Nyberg suggest, the historic value of buildings often lies more in the urban patterns they create than in their individual distinctiveness.

The pattern Steinbrueck and Folke captured.

In 1975, Victor Steinbrueck embarked on a project with Folke Nyberg and Historic Seattle to identify and publish a series of ten posters inventorying Seattle’s outstanding historic buildings. Queen Anne was lucky to get one of them. In fact, the Queen Anne Historical Society and its volunteers, some of whom are still active today (6/2018), worked on the project. Completing their survey in the early days of the American historic preservation movement, Steinbrueck and Nyberg were hell bent on recognizing that along with the high style buildings often favored by the movement, the vernacular ones were those that really defined a neighborhood’s historic character. The poster authors understood profoundly how a sense of place can give meaning to a community like ours. As Historic Seattle notes on its website, “Each inventory includes photographs and brief descriptions of common building types, significant buildings, and urban design elements.” …Continue reading “Our Sweet Queen Anne Cottages”→

When the Queen Anne High School was built, America was conflicted over the purpose of high school. Public education was seen as a possible cure for America’s social ills. Some believed there should be an emphasis on liberal arts, while others wanted to use the system to assimilate a surging immigration population, and another push was for vocational training.

In Queen Anne, the demand for a high school came from Seattle’s rapid population growth during the years following the Alaska Gold Rush. Between 1902 and 1910, Seattle’s total high school enrollment leapt from approximately 700 students to 4,500 students. Several elementary schools were constructed on Queen Anne Hill, and it was evident that a new high school would be needed. …Continue reading “Queen Anne High School”→